This document is intended to help foreign language teachers prepare students for the exit exam of essential skills required by the Student Accountability Standards enacted by the North Carolina State Board of Education. The North Carolina High School Exit Exam (NCHSEE) focuses on skills across all disciplines K-12 rather than content areas. This…

This booklet discusses the development of Professional Development Schools (PDSs), which are functioning public schools where school and university personnel collaborate to create exemplary learning environments capable of transforming both teacher preparation and pre-K-12 schooling. Benefits of PDSs include opportunities for school teachers and…

This report focuses on the workings of the Impact Aid program with a special emphasis on the implications of the statute for military children. The main purpose of the statute is to defray the local share of expenses for educating federally connected students. The assertion is that military and other federal activities bring additional students…

Part of a series, the purpose of this low-readability/high interest book is to provide instruction and practice in using higher order thinking to develop students' reading comprehension skills. The reading skills addressed in the book are based on state reading standards and assessment tests for grades seven and eight. The goal of this series of…

This study examined reasons for the success of eight high-performing California elementary schools with high numbers of impoverished students. Interviews with principal focused on teaching methods, curriculum, content standards, test scores, teacher professional development, safety, discipline, local decision making, parent involvement, emergency…

The educational chasm between schools and colleges is an indication of dysfunction. It is becoming increasingly recognized as a major impediment to the successful education of all students. High standards and improved schools and colleges will ultimately depend on the extent to which this gap is narrowed. This book describes 12 programs that are…

California State Standard 7.5 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of medieval Japan." Seventh-grade students describe the significance of Japan's proximity to China and Korea and the influence of these countries on Japan; discuss the reign of…

This CD-ROM provides information on successful teaching strategies for elementary and middle school teachers. One section offers links to curriculum and lesson planning strategies in the areas of English as a Second Language, library, arts, classroom management, English/language arts, foreign languages, global education, health/physical education,…

These eight papers address the five goals of the national standards for foreign language learning: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. They include the following: (1) "From Rhetoric to Reality: Applying AATSP Standards to the Spanish Classroom" (Maria J. Amores and Frank W. Medley, Jr.); (2) "Standards for Teaching…

This study focuses on how a statewide reform initiative, when envisioned as a professional development opportunity, affected teachers' capacities to become change-agents in their classrooms and districts, and how individual district contexts shaped the development of those capacities. The interview and artifactual data used for this study were…

At the request of the Superintendent of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public School System (MCPS), Achieve conducted an evaluation of the MCPS K-12 Curriculum Frameworks and high school semester exams in English and mathematics. The review was designed to determine how well the MCPS Frameworks and exams align with Maryland state academic…

This document presents an executive summary of the 96-page "Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do," a guidebook for those who care about creating and supporting quality in schools. It is an operating manual for school leaders that features new strategies to help principals structure and support…

This study examined faculty experience with student academic unpreparedness at two open-admission universities in the southern United States. Fourteen faculty from core subject areas, such as English, history, and mathematics, completed open-ended interviews on the effects of student unpreparedness. Faculty discussed the basic problems and…

This document presents highlights from the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Science Assessment for grades 4, 8, and 12. This is the premier issue of a series aimed at bringing these test results to a broader audience. Results are presented through easy-to-understand graphs and examples of test questions with student answers.…

Natural Resources for Grade 3 is a "hands-on" environmental activities unit designed for teachers to use with their students. Activities are chosen from natural resource programs such as Project Learning Tree, Project WILD, Aquatic Wild, and Project WET. The activities address natural resource themes and meet the Virginia Standards of…